Yang Farong's calligraphy life

Tsai Xiuwen /Wen

The first time I met the calligrapher Mr. Yang Farong was at the wine table where I was gathering with friends. His face was elegant, his eyes were kind, his thick hair was curly, and his stretched eyebrows revealed a Confucian aura. Near the Spring Festival, he gave each of his friends present a picture of the Spring League that he wrote, and he liked it very much when he saw the flowing font like flowing water. Yang Farong on the wine table is extremely affectionate, frequently raising a glass to touch each other, quite a literati inker "fighting wine poems hundreds" of openness. Knowing that we live in a community, we are naturally close to each other. Because I live close, I have the opportunity to have a drink with Yang Farong and his friends from time to time. Every time they meet, Yang Farong will bring his own works, and everyone will always be attracted by the handsome and flying atmosphere presented in his works. What impressed me was that every time no matter who made the east, he would bring a few bottles of good wine for everyone to drink. He also gave generously to some friends who "asked" the word. After a long time, he and Yang Farong became old friends, so they had the urge to write about him. Legendary life: Born in Shuxiangmendi, raised in the farmer's home of Hanzhong, Shaanxi, is a land with beautiful scenery like Jiangnan and with deep historical and cultural heritage. In 1957, Yang Farong was born in a family surnamed He in the countryside of Longwang Town, Ningqiang County, Hanzhong, and his father named him He Guisheng. He Guisheng is an old man, and he already has 5 brothers and sisters on it. Speaking of which, He Jiaben is a scholarly monk: Xiao Guisheng's grandfather is familiar with poetry and poetry, a large character, famous far and wide; his father is full of poetry, and at a young age, he became a famous calligrapher in Ningqiang County, and most of the plaques and books hung by large local households were written by him. Unfortunately, because he had served as mayor of the National Government and the family was a landlord, after liberation, he became the object of dictatorship and was reformed through labor with his wife. In 1958, catching up with the Great Leap Forward, life was extremely difficult, and his parents really could not feed the hungry and skinny little Guisheng, so they endured the pain of giving this 1-year-old child to the Yang family of poor peasants, so He Guisheng became the current Yang Farong. After Fa Rong became the adopted son of the Yang family, although he was 20 miles away from his biological father and mother, he had contacts from time to time. Biological fathers and biological mothers were the object of "struggle", especially the biological father was criticized for fighting to death in 1961, sowing the seeds of pain in the depths of his young soul. When he was a teenager, his adoptive father also died of illness, and his adoptive mother, who had no source of livelihood, took him to remarry, but fortunately, the simple stepfather treated him as if he were his own. Yang Farong remembers the warm love given to him by his adoptive mother, adoptive father and stepfather throughout his life! The legendary life experience has enabled Yang Farong to have a deeper understanding of people and things. Xiao Fa Rong began to contact writing from the age of 7 in elementary school, and he was fortunate to meet a highly renowned enlightenment teacher---- Mr. Fang Quanguo, who paid great attention to the writing training of students, and asked students to write a big word every day, and it was a small set of small characters in large characters. Perhaps thanks to genetic genes, Teacher Fang found that Yang Farong's writing was dignified and stable, the font was beautiful, very surprised, and after the surprise was a surprise, often taking his large character book to the senior grade to show. Yang Farong was fascinated by writing, and even picked up a stone on the way to school and school to scribble a few strokes at random, and the more natural characters were written, the better, and adults did not even believe that he wrote it. In middle school, his words came to the fore. In 1976, Yang Farong studied in the Department of Political Science and Education of Shaanxi Normal University, and he worked hard to learn various knowledge. Because of his "good writing", he was often assigned by the school to engrave wax plates, write banners, etc. In the process of repeated writing, Yang Farong was using his emotions to outline a new world and illusion an artistic body with a unique charm of life. Every time he completed the task, his soul seemed to have undergone a spiritual baptism of holiness and pride. Due to the increase in opportunities to practice penmanship, Yang Farong's writing level has reached a new level. Yang Farong only had the opportunity to contact the ink treasure left by his biological father when he grew up, and he found that his father's words were so thick, flaunting "qi", "god", "rhyme", and his level of calligraphy shocked him! It is worth mentioning that his biological brother is also good at calligraphy. I believe from this that the unique genetic genes nourish the spirituality of Yang Farong's art, three generations of "clear out of blue is better than blue", Yang Farong's biological father if the soul knows, it should also be a smile nine springs. In 1979, Yang Farong graduated from university and was assigned to a middle school as a chinese teacher and political teacher. Teaching is his beloved profession, and Yang Farong has a wide range of knowledge of traditional culture and a deeper understanding of the spirit of traditional culture. He painstakingly studied poetry and songs, studied the hundreds of sons, and could do everything in piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, and playing: he was the protagonist of literary and artistic performances, and he was strong in poetry recitation. Literary performances, he was the "director"... Yang Farong loves literature and writes well. It is precisely because of Yang Farong's profound literary cultivation that his future calligraphy art has increasingly formed a style of vigor and nature, elegance and eternity, and the pen sharpness is also indifferent, elegant and flexible. As a teacher, his first-hand board books are especially loved by students, often he writes on the blackboard, students imitate his words on the desk, invisibly, many students write a good hand. Yang Farong believes that writing well is originally the "basic foundation" for learning a good language, and it is necessary to inherit tradition, aesthetic education, and cultivate good habits and calm character of reading and seeking knowledge. In 1990, Yang Farong was selected to work as a teacher at the Ningqiang County Party School. In the same year, he was admitted as a member of the Shaanxi Hard Pen Calligraphers Association, which further strengthened his continuous pursuit and exploration of calligraphy art. In 1992, the Party School of the Provincial Party Committee of Shaanxi Province recruited graduate students for the five northwestern provinces, and Yang Farong was admitted with excellent results and became a graduate student in philosophy. After graduation, he was transferred to the Party School of the Hanzhong Municipal Party Committee and became the director of the teaching and research department, while taking on the heavy responsibility of teaching and teaching management. At the Party School, Yang Farong used novel teaching methods to give lectures, and the level of lectures was well-known in the city, so he was awarded the title of "Advanced Worker of Theoretical Education in Shaanxi Province". He has written more than 100 theoretical articles and was awarded the title of "Outstanding Economic Theorist of Shaanxi Province", it is worth mentioning that in Yang Hairong's 30-year teaching career, he believes that practicing calligraphy is to cultivate aesthetic awareness, so he has always taken the improvement of writing level as an important pursuit to improve the overall quality of teachers. The outside world gave Yang Farong unanimous praise: good lectures, good writing, good writing, and good character. After all, Hanzhong is a prefecture-level city, and Yang Farong has more contacts and broadened his horizons, and he can exchange books with many of his colleagues. In order to increase the golden stone atmosphere of his works, he tried his best to see the original inscriptions and physical scenes written by ancient calligraphers, such as the Hanzhong Museum, the Forest of Steles in Xi'an, the Forbidden City in Beijing, Taishan and other famous mountains and rivers, and he was fascinated by the heavy and rhythmic lines on the stele, always memorizing them while copying them casually. The firmness and strength of the stele and the gentleness and beauty of the post have introduced him to a new stage of studying and exploring art. In 2000, he asked Xu Yuquan, a calligrapher in Shaanxi Province and a member of the Chinese Calligraphers Association, to be his teacher, and became the last disciple of Teacher Xu. The famous teacher pointed out the mystery and sketched a clear outline and basic direction for Yang Farong from Wei Kai, Zhang Cao, Han Li Han Jian to Jin Wen and Oracle Bones. In 2006, Yang Farong joined the Shaanxi Calligraphers Association and was elected as a member of the Calligraphy Education Professional Committee of the China Education Association, and was subsequently appointed by the Chinese Ministry of Culture as an examiner for the Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Grade Examination. Several times the sunset and sunrise, a few degrees of moon lack of full moon, Yang Farong tossed around the calligraphy room, forgetting between pen and ink. After linyan, Ou, Liu, and Zhao, the true grass was sealed, and after laying a solid foundation in calligraphy, the direction of study was positioned on the Wei Monument. Over the past few years, his Wei stele has become a little famous, quite Wei and Jin heritage style, the pen is sharp and falling, free and relaxed, the mood is ups and downs, and the majestic is strange. With the deepening of his study, he also vigorously attacked Zhang Cao, focusing on Zhang Zhi's "Pingshan Qiu Liang Ti", Suo Jing's "Yue Yi Ti", "Ode to the Teacher", Lu Ji's "Ping Fu Ti" and the creation of modern Wang Shi bo, Wang Yu Chang and other family Zhang Cao classic Fa Ti, Yang Farong loved the shock of people's hearts brought by the art of Zhang Cao calligraphy, and believed that it was a kind of self-confident upward force. In order to strengthen the power of Zhang Cao and improve the comprehensive ability and talent of calligraphers, in addition to the main books such as Zhang Cao and Wei Kai, Yang Farong is also good at the temporary creation of books such as Dazhuo, Han Jian, and Han Li. Yang Farong does not lose traditional techniques and the innovation of the times, can keep and can change, keep the foundation, change the strategy; keep not muddy, change do not lose me. Write your feelings with simple flying pen and ink and lines. The calligraphy he wrote was beautiful and dignified, the writing was strong and upright, the cursive writing was flowing with clouds, the calligraphy was clumsy and natural, and the calligraphy sketches were exquisite and flexible. In particular, his chapter draft is simple, elegant, calm and free. This stems from the fact that he added elements of modern calligraphy on the basis of traditional chapters and grasses, and to varying degrees, he showed the trend of separation and opposite brought about by the matrix book, flying upwards, with a majestic and majestic atmosphere, which made people feel a kind of righteous and awe-inspiring gentleman's wind at the same time, and at the same time, they could taste the atmosphere of the qingxiu scrolls that were full of paper. Yang Farong's creation has won fruitful results: his calligraphy works have been scattered in influential professional newspapers and periodicals such as "Calligraphy Newspaper", "Calligraphy Herald", "China Calligraphy and Painting Newspaper"; his calligraphy works have been exhibited in more than 20 cities such as Xi'an, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities and won dozens of awards; his calligraphy works have been collected by domestic and foreign calligraphy enthusiasts and collection institutions; several domestic galleries, art galleries and other cultural institutions have also signed contracts with him. Yang Farong's unique calligraphy has attracted the attention of people in the industry: Mr. Zhong Mingshan, vice chairman of the China Calligraphers Association, gladly wrote eight big characters for him: "Taking the ancient as a teacher, opening up a new face"; Luo Xiaoping, who is known as an award-winning professional in the Chinese book world, commented on his chapter grass: The works are more free from the shackles of practicality, so they can present a more free side, more pure and freehand romance, and his works are sometimes slow as water, sometimes climaxed, and there is a lot of literature that seems to look at the mountains and do not like the beauty of peace... Ni Jinxiang, a famous young calligrapher in the military, believes that Yang Farong's chapter grass presents the atmosphere of righteousness, the style of a righteous gentleman, and feels from the quietness of the text to give people the beauty of the realm of peace, tranquility, elegance, and softness; the white snow and the sun are absolutely in tune, and the mountains and rivers have a knowing voice; Chen Xinya, director of the Chinese Calligraphers Association, said: Yang Farong's works break the narrow posture of the momentum as a pen, take the model as the basis, add more subjective aesthetic consciousness, do not pay too much attention to the gains and losses of the glyphs, and seek god-likeness, expressing simplicity, composure, It fully embodies the atmosphere and context of ancient and modern chapter grass, and is the root of its high ancient and elegant chapter grass calligraphy. ...... ...... Endless Art When The Pen and Ink Of the Times Yang Farong has an open-minded personality, has a wide range of good relations, is open-minded and studious, and regards each colleague of calligraphy and painting as his own teacher, the strength of the scholar, and the shortness of the already; he also regards each colleague as his own student friend, treats each other frankly, exchanges skills, and improves together. "Reading thousands of books and walking thousands of miles", the perception of life is the driving force and source of artistic creation, the pursuit of beauty, the yearning for nature, is the common ideal of mankind. Yang Farong collected wind everywhere, walked all over the beautiful mountains and rivers, the beauty of nature inspired him with the charm of the authenticity of life, he sought teachers from the famous mountains and waters, and tasted the connotation and artistic conception in the inscription stones. In 2011, Yang Farong, who had more than 30 years of service, applied for internal retirement according to the regulations, and settled in Shenzhen with his wife and daughter who worked at Huawei, and he was good at making friends, and he was soon active in the community, in the streets, and in book associations at all levels. Shenzhen has endless calligraphy and painting exhibitions, but also from all over the country calligraphers and painters, he quickly maintained close contact with the calligraphy and painting circles in Shenzhen, and his calligraphy creation is becoming more and more free and handy. The pen is full of brushes, vertical and horizontal, and the rhythm of music is rippled. His dedication to the art of calligraphy has reached the state of selflessness, creating a 100-meter-long scroll, one stop is one day. Today, Yang Farong's life is closely linked to the city. He likes the climate of Shenzhen, and prefers the spirit of shenzhen's vigorous and enterprising and continuous innovation, he actively participates in various calligraphy and painting exhibitions, meets friends with literature, and exchanges with book friends, which makes him gain a lot every time. In the one year of interacting with Yang Farong, he always gave people the impression of enthusiasm, cheerfulness and honesty. Listening to people talk about calligraphy, literature and art, he always couldn't hide the vigor on his face. Smile and listen when calm, laugh when you're happy. Some people say that the bookworm, the high art of the world, cannot enter his door without diligent cultivation, cannot obtain his basics without shigu, and cannot achieve success without good enlightenment. It is precisely by relying on his own diligence, his heart to follow his hands, and his painstaking pursuit of art that he has found his own artistic direction and achieved himself. 　The art is endless. For Yang Farong, the road of artistic pursuit is still long, and in the face of the gratifying scene of thousands of sails competing for hundreds of boats in the Shenzhen calligraphy circle, he does not dare to slacken off. I believe that he will continue to surpass himself and forge a unique path of book art! Yes, the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture depends more on a group of artists to refine and create in the process of inheritance and development, and in the moment of their lives, they provide us with pleasant connotations and spiritual enjoyment...

It was completed in the summer of 2014

(The author of this article is a member of the China Writers Association, vice chairman of the Shenzhen Futian District Writers Association, and has authored many collections of essays and reportage)